408 



MESOZOIC TIME. 



but, instead, there were Cycads, along with many new forms of Ferns, 

 Equiseta, and Conifers. Figures 705 to 709 show this contrast be- 

 tween the floras of the Carboniferous and Triassic eras. Figs. 705 

 and 706 represent the remains of leaves of some of the Cycads ; Figs. 

 737 and 738, a foreign species of one of the Conifers, a Voltzia re- 

 lated to the Cypress ; and Figs. 707, 708, and 709 are species of ferns. 

 Trunks of Conifers occur occasionally in the sandstone. One, found 

 near Bristol, Conn., was over fifteen feet long and a foot in diameter. 

 No species of grass or moss have been met with. The remains of 

 plants are sufficient to show that the forest vegetation consisted mainly 

 of Conifers, Tree-ferns, and Cycads. As the Cycads were the most 

 characteristic trees of the early and middle Mesozoic, a figure of a 



Fisj. 710. 



Cycas circinalis (X yjor)- 



common species, of the Moluccas (where it grows to a height of thirty 

 or forty feet), is here annexed. (1.) The habit is that of a Palm. 

 (2.) The manner in which the leaves are developed is like that of 

 most Ferns, they coming forth coiled up, and uncoiling as they expand. 

 But, while thus comprising some fern-like and palm-like characteris- 

 tics, (3.) the Cycads are fundamentally, that is in their fruit and wood, 

 true Gymnosperms, or related to tne Pine tribe. The wood has a 



